360 video iPad app will let you witness war up close

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How do you convey the power and atmosphere of war? That’s the question war photographer Danfung Dennis is trying to answer with a new app that is likely to change the way we see the battlefield and probably life in the future.

Condition ONE is an app that’s due to be release in 2011 to provide a new form of storytelling claims Dennis.

“The power of the still image, the narrative of films and the emotional engagement of tactile experiences to create a new language that is so immersive, it will shake viewers out of their numbness to traditional media and provide them a powerful emotional experience. Instead of opening a window to glimpse another world, we are attempting to bring the viewer into that world as an active participant,” he explains to TIME magazine.

Condition ONE is a mobile media technology company developing the tools and platform for leading filmmakers, photojournalists and visual storytellers to create powerful immersive experiences for next generation devices to engage a global audience.

What that means in the real world is that users of the iPad will be able to use the iPad as a window to a world that they aren’t in, but can see. Moving the tablet around reveals more of the video just as if you were there in that environment.

"Through our work we hope to shake people from their indifference to war, and to bridge the disconnect between the realities on the ground and the public consciousness at home." Dennis tells DSLRnewsshooter. "By bearing witness and shedding light on another’s pain and despair, we are trying to invoke our humanity and a response to act. Is it possible that war is an archaic and primitive human behavior that society is capable of advancing past? Is it possible that the combination of photojournalism, filmmaking and technology can plead for peace and contribute to this future?”

It’s incredibly gripping stuff as it appears that if you aren’t looking in the right direction you miss the action going on all around you.

As a test for the new app, due out later this year, Dennis sent photojournalist Patrick Chauvel to the rebels’ front lines in Libya.

"It's a very sad story," he says. "These guys are students, they're hairdressers, they're bakers, bankers, philosophers, teachers. They are no military."

Could this be the way we experience news in the future? Let us know what you think in the comments below.